Half an hour later, the lifeboat was ready. Serviced with air, food and water for an indefinite time, the tiny craft lay in its cradle.
"Keep a light in the window for me," said Braun.
He climbed aboard through the miniature airlock, which closed behind him. Solenoid magnets conveyed the lifeboat through chutes into the valve of the main airlock. Doors opened and closed with automatic finality. Air hissed back into the ship as pumps emptied the valve. With pressure equalized, the outer door opened into space.
Braun eased his tiny craft free, then turned and ran forward alongside the Venture IV. From outside, the explorer ship seemed tremendous. It was a small world in itself, complete, self-sustaining. But mass-conversion was necessary to power the velocities far beyond the speed of light, and already the voyage had eaten away too much of the ship's mass.
A phantom glow hovered about the forward compartments as if the metallic shell caught and reflected faint light from a distant source. Braun wondered about that subconsciously, but in the midst of so many wonders, one more mystery meant little.
There was no light beam to be seen. His instruments found a course parallel to the invisible beam and followed it for him, with the robot pilot in charge.
But for the ship dwindling behind him, the vault of space seemed empty. In the blackness ahead, though he could not see it, was a single small luminous speck. Behind him, the light of the ship diminished slowly to infinity. It vanished. Braun was alone with his mission.
With no visible reference point, Braun's senses became unreliable. Unlighted, the lifeboat seemed a mote of darkness lost in the greater immensities. Even on the brink of the last unknown, the man grew restless and depressed. With nothing to see, nothing to occupy the senses of his brain, he was bored.
Braun groped blindly and gave himself the luxury of a cigarette. While it lasted, the red glow of the cigarette's coal gave comfort to his loneliness. It gave him something on which to concentrate.
There was no up, no down, no sideways, only ahead and behind, with invisible dots of light to identify each. He felt oddly trapped, at the mercy of automatic instruments. Curious and unpleasant illusions crowded upon him.